1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus and a print control method capable of acquiring the information about the type of record medium (paper) which is mounted in a printer and on which data is to be printed, automatically determining the type of paper, and automatically determining the print mode appropriate for the paper, a computer-readable storage medium storing a program, and a program itself.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, a printing system is normally configured by a color printer capable of performing color output, a host computer for controlling the printer and generating print data, and a communications interface connecting them. In color printers, an ink jet printer can use various types of paper depending on each use. Paper of various materials is available. For example, plain paper for use in a copying machine, coated paper which is coated with silica, etc. for resisting smearing of ink and obtaining good coloring, glossy paper for use in forming a photographic image like a silver halid photo, an OHP film for a transparent original, a transfer paper for iron printing, a backprint film, etc. are available.
When the above-mentioned paper (medium) is printed, a user selects the type of record medium (paper) to be printed on in the settings for printing on the printer driver, and appropriate printing is performed based on the settings.
Recently, a printer load with a sensor called a media sensor for automatically determining the type of paper has been developed. Refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-316669 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H07-234767.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-316669 discloses the technology of detecting the type (type of paper) of printing paper set on the printer, determining whether or not it matches the user-designated type of paper, and, if they do not match, amending by a color conversion process unit the color information contained in the print data to the color information corresponding to the set type of printing paper, and transferring the result to the printer. Thus, the technology of checking whether or not the user-set type of paper is correct, and issuing a warning, etc. has been a conventional technology.
However, the above-mentioned conventional technology has the following problems.
(1) The contents disclosed by the conventional technology are allowing a user to determine the type of paper from among various types of paper, and input the determined type of paper, and checking the input setting. Therefore, although it is determined whether or not the type of paper is appropriate for the print processing, the user has to perform a laborious operation.
In the actual printing operation, it is assumed that there are a number of users who performs printing with the default without specifically changing the type of paper, and it is desired to realize print processing appropriate for the type of medium set on the printer without forcing a user to perform a laborious operation.
(2) To determine the type of paper when a printing operation is performed, for example, in a network environment, another user can newly set a different type of paper before the printer starts, feeding paper. Therefore, if such a case practically occurs, then the correspondence between print data and paper is inconsistent, and a print result appropriate for paper cannot be obtained, and furthermore paper and ink are wasted.
(3) According to the conventional technology, for example, when a print job of 10 pages and another print job of 5 pages are to be performed, the subsequent print job of 5 pages is to be held until the preceding print job of 10 pages is completed so that the user can avoid the above-mentioned problems although the user issues print instructions to the respective print jobs. That is, the subsequent print job can be performed only after the preceding print job is completed, and the type of paper actually used in the subsequent job can be detected.
In this method, each print processing has to be started only after the preceding printing operation is completed, and the application software for performing a printing operation cannot terminate the print processing. Thus, the operability of the computer of the user is degraded. Furthermore, since a plurality of print jobs cannot be concurrently performed, the efficient of print processing is lowered.
Additionally, for example, the frameless printing in which printing is performed on the entire page without margin, the double-sided printing in which a printing process is performed on both sides of paper, etc. are not permitted for some types of paper. However, in the printing system using the above-mentioned media sensor, an undesired combination between a medium and the characteristic of image information is determined. There has not been the idea of determining the applicability of a medium based on the frameless printing and double-sided printing, and the type of medium.